It’s Time For Canadians To Stop Playing Nice

BusinessIt’s Time For Canadians To Stop Playing NiceByKumaran Nadesan,Forbes Books Author.for Forbes BooksAUTHOR POSTExpertise and opinions of authors published by ForbesBooks. Imprint operated under license. | Paid ProgramMay 07, 2026, 11:32am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.It’s time Canada showed its real strength to the world.gettyFor a brief moment in the early 2000s, Canada sat at the center of the global mobile revolution. Through the company Research In Motion, later renamed BlackBerry, Canadian engineers effectively invented the modern smartphone category. Their devices combined mobile email, secure messaging, and portable computing in a way that transformed how professionals worked. Governments, corporate executives, and world leaders carried BlackBerrys clipped to their belts. The device became so culturally embedded that the nickname “CrackBerry” captured how addictive its instant communication felt in an era when most phones still existed primarily for calls and text messages.But technological leadership is not the same as technological dominance. While BlackBerry pioneered the smartphone concept, the next wave of innovation came from elsewhere. Apple reimagined the device around a touchscreen interface and an app ecosystem with the iPhone. Samsung rapidly scaled hardware innovation and global manufacturing. Huawei and other Chinese firms leveraged massive supply chains and aggressive expansion into international markets.Meanwhile, BlackBerry struggled to pivot from its keyboard-centric design and secure email niche toward the emerging broader consumer ecosystem. As the author of Artificial Intelligence Basics, Tom Taulli noted, “It fell behind on innovation, kept its app ecosystem closed and proprietary, and failed to recognize the rise of consumer-driven IT buying.” In the end, Canada had created the category but failed to control its future. And the BlackBerry s...